As I felt the burn in my legs my head started her same old conversation.

Why am I here?

Is it really worth it?

What will it matter if I just stop for a little while?

Blah blah blah

My legs kept going.

In this instance, I’ve out-trained my ego.

Which freed me up to start thinking about my strengths and my weaknesses – truly the only reason I train is for the brilliant insights I get out on the road.

Now when it comes to sport, and as is turns out in everything in my life, I’m slow as shit but I can go for hours!

I’m an endurance baby through and through.

It took me a long time to figure this out.

You can figure it out right now.

For today’s insight we’ll stick to three types of people – sheep, tortoises and hares.

Sheep are those who just want to stand in the herd and graze all day long. They’re really content to be like everyone else. They value perceived safety above all. They’re risk-averse.

Nothing wrong with being a sheep.

I’m just not the gal for you.

I understand you academically but I don’t get you on a cellular level and have no desire to.

Then there are hares.

These are the achievers who love going balls to the walls for a short distance and then sit back and sip a martini to recover. Their explosive power is nothing short of magnificent. They tend to be muscular in built. Their energy is high vibe AF. They love their toys, they love admiration (and let’s be honest here ladies, who doesn’t appreciate a good six-pack?). They shine in the spotlight. You will find them in top management and they quickly build their businesses to outsource as one of their strengths is delegation. They have the ability to make a shit ton of money in next to no time and don’t mind telling you they’re going to retire by the time they’re forty. And they often can.

The weakness of the hare is that they can easily get distracted by setting too many goals at once or falling for bright object syndrome.

Hares don’t have the patience to set and stick to really long term goals. Instead they shine with a longer term vision and short term goals that they can hit hard and then take off. The secret for them is to build in periods of high intensity followed by complete recovery into their calendars so they can come back and hit hard again and again.

Then there are the tortoises.

Those of us who are also achievement driven but our super power is our ability to set those long term goals and to work relentlessly towards them. Our bodies, at best, get lean. Our energy is high when turned on but in secret we’re hermits and we thrive with long periods of semi-isolation. Our businesses are always purpose driven and we’re in it for the long run. Till death us do part. We have no desire to retire and quite frankly when we do it right, our work never feels like a chore.

Our weakness is of course that we take way too long to outsource as we have such massive amounts of stamina that we can do the work of ten. It doesn’t mean we have to, as this often bottle necks the growth of our empires.

Tortoises excels when then have long-term, medium-term and short-term goals. They have a deep desire to understand the bigger picture and once they do, they become laser focused, easily shutting out distraction, putting their heads down and getting on with it. Tortoises have no desire to veg out, and instead we get the best results when we work in periods of increased activity followed by active recovery – in other words for your business it’s building intensity for 3 weeks and then taking one week where you focus more on personal development work, mindset, strategising, etc.

The real power comes from understanding which animal you are and how to use this insight to your advantage.

First you have to stay focused on your own lane.

If you’re a tortoise trying to keep up with a hare in the short term you’re going to blow! Crash and burn bitch. Instead you want to periodically train with the hares (think interval training to make you strong) but this is simply part of your long term strategy to go even further.

If on the other hand you’re a hare, stop entering endurance races thinking you can out-sprint the tortoises. You want to compete in the sprints and every now and again train with the tortoises. Yes, I know we frustrate the shit out of you in the beginning of the run when you just want to go go go, but we both know that there comes a point when the burn starts kicking in and you’re dying while that slow poke keeps churning it over. You want to train with the tortoise to build the endurance that you can then bring into your sprint to use your power for longer instead of losing the race in the last 20 meters.

More importantly ladies, you want to figure this out for the sake of your business! How we do one thing is how we do everything which means if you’re a tortoise in sport, you’re a tortoise in business as well. Different race, different strategy, different rhythm.

And if you’re in the wrong lane you’ll never make it to the finish line!

You want to start surrounding yourself with both tortoises and hares as coaches, mastermind partners, trusted advisors – staying focused on who you are, who they are, and learning how to use the combination of strengths and weaknesses to your advantage.

I also want you to start getting out of ego and understand that one is not better than the other. They are simply different. Each with their super powers and their kryptonite. It’s about optimising YOUR strength and outsourcing your weakness.

But only if you’re really an achiever.

Only if you’re driven to win.

If not, if you’re a sheep with bunny ears, then you won’t get any of this and you’ll keep doing it the same way and moan about not getting different results.

For only death is inevitable.

Thriving is always a choice.

With love always,

Anel

PS: You need to understand that those who are serious about winning, those who are in it for a PB, they don’t do it alone. They always, and I mean always, work with a coach to keep them on track. To keep them sticking to the right strategy for THEM. The personalised strategy that you simply don’t find in a group program or on Google.

They work with a coach that keeps them out of ego.

The coach that understands how to set the goals that keeps them motivated.

The coach who keeps them accountable and disciplined.

I work with hares and tortoises.

High achievers who are purpose driven and who understand that in order for them to win they have to play the game from a place of their strengths.